Thursday, March 24, 2011

Mid 1970's Wary Look

Looking at back of some of my folks' photos brought me to that time when, on at least an annual basis, people would go to a photographer and have their pictures taken professionally. Usually the background curtains or decor were the same; sometimes a chair would be placed for one to lean on or place both hands on either side of the back. These set shots gave you a nice comparative year to year as to how one has grown, aged, gone decrepit.

The only set of photos that I can compare those ones are one's passport photos. We were told to pose in a certain way, usually without smiles. The official pose, I suppose. Dating myself, my first passport photo, i.e., one where I wasn't standing in with one of my parents, was back when passport photos were black & white. B &W on purpose, kiddies, not due to some cool Photoshopping thing.

So, here I be, Slavic unibrow well on its way to giving me that pondering look. Last shot before facial hair came to fuzzy up the scene. Think I'd just bought Hendrix's "Axis Bold as Love" the week this photo was taken from a guy at high school specializing in hot (off the back of a truck) deals. Deep into Vonnegut and Heller's great anti-war novel. The US was still in Vietnam and my buddies and I were deeply interested in that barrel of numbers being rolled around like a pig on a pit by the Selective Service.